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Review Begins...

Matrix Revolutions: The Greatest Story Over-Told.

I must admit, I was intrigued when the Wachowski brothers released the animated matrix prequel "The Animatrix." It clearly reversed roles and cast the humans as the original aggressors against the machine intelligences and the architects of their own destruction. This appealed to my leftist instincts and left me actively wondering why they had made this moral twist.

Alas, the end of the third and final film, Matrix: Revolutions, makes it painfully obvious. Stretched out in cross-position, the finale of this story is Neo goes back into the matrix to face his evil-opposite the now virus-like Agent Smith. And how does he defeat him? By allowing Smith to win, thus, in his death, opening a path for the great machine intelligence into which he is also connected to come into the world and wipe away all the evil.

Just in case we MISSED it, the Mouse character (always a "true believer" in "the one"), on seeing that the war is over and the machines have turned around and are going home announces for all to hear "He's SAVED us!"

Oh and incase you missed THAT, we get to see Neo's body carted off on a suspiciously altar-like platform by the great Machine Intelligence and a holy electronic glow surrounding him to let us know he is ascending.

COME ON!!! I've only see this story about 3600 times. By reducing their man v. machine epic to yet another twisted Gospel the Warchowski brothers have reduced their story to the most trivally mundane and left me feeling I wasted 6 hours of my life getting to this point

And the Animatrix? In case it wasn't obvious, thats the Original Sin. Can't be saved without an Original Sin you know.

**sigh** I really think they just ran out of story material after the first film and so stole the most obvious story they could. They should have quit with the first film which, while far from perfect, at least wasn't mundane.

In the words of my to-be-preisted wife: "Lame!"

In its defense the movie does have lots of beautiful 3D animation and other digital effects. Its somewhat ironic that the commercial my movie theater showed before the picture featured a stunt-driver because, if this movie has any long term significance, its to signal the death of the stunt man as a profession. It has become so cheap and so easy to do it all on computers that its not worth risking a human for.

Maybe thats the ultimate man v. machine story that the Wachowski brothers missed.

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Hi I saw it last night too, I think for a conclusion to a story it's alright, it's good fun for a few hours. The problem is that the first film in particular raised questions, so everyone spent time thinking about them and talking to their mates about it, which wrapped you up in the whole thing. The trouble with an ending is that it's exactly that, and ending, what do we have to talk about now?, it's over?, so we are no longer envolved. Hence it not seeming so enthrawling, thats my theory anyway, but i'm no story expert . I liked it, but not as much as 1 or 2.

if this movie has any long term significance, its to signal the death of the stunt man as a profession. It has become so cheap and so easy to do it all on computers that its not worth risking a human for.

You should have stayed for the credits

"...and this year's oscar for longest credits ever in any movie goes to...Matrix Revolutions!" (looks like they included *everyone*)

There were of course a lot of 3D animators, and perhaps they were split between different teams so that it seems there were fewer than there were. I'm afraid I wasn't paying *that* much attention, so...

I loved it. Ok, so it's not the most original story out there. I'm fine with that. We already concluded that Neo was god like in the first movie. So it should end the way it did does not suprise me in the least. I think that the Wachowski brothers were able to tell it in a manner that was effective and fun.

I really feel that Reloaded and Revolutions fell under the weight of the first movie where you were discovering this world along with Neo. You were a participant in the story. The last 2 movies had you watching from the sidelines, cheering the good guys on.

All in all, I think that the W Bros gave us another trillogy to look at over and over again for years to come.

Now! Bring on ROTK!

-ChrisM

BTW, Notice that my pic over there has me against a circuit board with an otherworldly glow as well. Bits bow down before me!

But I really don't see what Reloaded has to do with Revolutions. The only thing they had in common was the growing power/numbers of Smith, and perhaps that the Megn.. Mov^H^Hev.. Frenchman was in both.. And they both had "minor" parts in this one.A great number of subplots (and even major plots, such as the iterative nature of the matrix) from Reloaded was just ignored for Revolutions.

But as I said, I still loved it. And I loved Reloaded as well. They're not on par with the original Matrix, but they're definitly great movies.

Yeah, thats how bored I was... I found myself staring at them trying to figure out how much they had to "push her up" to get that shot.

And I'm sorry Chris, but if I wanted to see the passion, I'd get a GOOD passion-play out, like Last Temptation or even J C Superstar.

Reducing the whole thing to a passion play IMO just showed an amazing void of creative story thought.

The original Matrix was interesting because it went to new places. Revolutions was almost like the magician showing you the wires and saying "See! Fooled You! Its not magic at all, just the same old everyday stuff."

Frankly, I think Revolutions detracted from and to some degree ruined The Matrix.

Jeff

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I have to admit though, it did leave me with one thought I find highly amusing.

I wonder how many fan boy kiddies out there who are gonna rave about this film cause they think they are suppsoed to will realize that the Wachowski brothers tricked them into doing something they absolutely refused to do for their parents.....

... go to church!

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Well... I'm jewish. My wife is on the path to be a VERY liberal episcopal priest. So my perspective is at least UNUSUAL on all this.

As I said somewhere else, I have no intention of getting into a debate on the truth or fiction of the traditional christain belief system. But the fact that the great revelation of the story of The Matrix turns out to be a by-the-numbers telling of the passion just annoys me as hackneyd and imagination-less story telling.

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I really wasn't expecting a huge plot, and there wasn't one! The fact is that while many scriptwriters can handle an original and interesting plot enough to fill one film, very few can cover three - that takes a real genius. The Matrix had the interesting plot, the philosophical theory, and spawned all the debates. Reloaded and Revolutions were purely there for the entertainment, in my opinion.

Action in abundance! The battle for the Dock was one of the best action scenes I've seen in a long time. There were lots of good "oshit" moments as yet another wave came in, each bigger than the last.

Excellent special effects

I love the way that with all that technology the best way of reloading the mechs was a wheelbarrow filled with ammo crates, and a guy content to run very fast... Or that while an EMP would end the battle, they didn't think to install one in the Dock... Or that they have EMP technology but neither the machines nor the humans worked out how to harden a system against it... Or "Sentinel", aka "killer-mari"

The Matrix trilogy made me realize how good the original Star Wars trilogy really is. Compare the horrible ending of Matrix: Reloaded to that of The Empire Strikes Back. Compare the drawn-out boring action-stopping expressions of love in Matrix: Revolutions to those of both A New Hope, where Luke's interest in Leia comes through as Han Solo jokingly wonders if Leia would be interested in a simple smuggler like him, or Return of a Jedi, where Solo feels down because he thinks Leia loves Luke and Leia turns the scene by revealing that Luke is her brother.

Star Wars also left its demographics-widening prostitution to its recent prequels while Revolutions seemed to have several scenes whose only purpose appears to be to include a wider demographic in the movie. The scene where mouse saves the day by jumping into the robot suit feels very cliche (his whole maturation subplot could have been cut, and probably would have been, if they had a teenage protagonist with a meaningful role in the story). Also, the scenes where the women fire rockets on the attacking robots has no connection to the story whatsoever and would probably have been cut if it wasn't for marketing.

Another thing, wasn't the plug in the back of Neo's head missing when he fought Bane? I looked for it, but couldn't see it. I assumed that the fight would be revealed to be some kind of matrix-illusion and that Neo really didn't get his eyes burnt out. If it was a mistake, this is really the wrong movie for it.

But in Revolutions A couple times we see people with more thenone plug down their backs (I notcied it because it seemed odd.)

And at the end Neo plugs back in for his crucixion across his entire body.

Yes the IMO third star Wars film was better then the third Matrix film but in myc ase thats faint praise. I liekd the first half of the third SW fil, but it wasn't Star Wars, it was Koozbane (the Muppet Show's alien planet). I happen to be a big muppet fan so i enjoyed it but it didnt really fit. I found the second half of that movie anti-climactic (oh lets go destroy ANOTHER Death Star) and terrilby constucted (they kept intercutting the boring footage of luke and the emporer-- whichw as suppsoed to be tension building-- with comic relief in the damn Teddy Bears with Seige Engines scene.)

I actually think the middle movie (Empire) was weaker then Reloaded, but thats just IMO.

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